Alexander Skarsgård on being “naked on a volcano” in The Northman

Alexander Skarsgård’s breakthrough role in the series True Blood saw him play Eric Northman, a thousand-year-old Viking prince-turned-hot-vampire. Now, after winning an Emmy for Big Little Lies and being nominated for Succession, Skarsgård headlines The Northman – as a Viking prince determined to avenge his father’s murder. 

Not released in South African cinemas, The Northman was up for Best Fantasy Movie at the 2023 Critics Choice Super Awards, where Skarsgård was also nominated for Best Actor. 

Written and directed by Cannes and Sundance winner Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse), The Northman also has a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus calls it, “a breathtaking visual marvel.”

The all-star cast reunites Skarsgård with his Big Little Lies co-star, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, opposite the likes of Emmy nominee Anya Taylor-Joy (The Menu, The Queen’s Gambit), four-time Oscar nominees Ethan Hawke (The Black Phone) and Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse), award-winning Danish actor Claes Bang (Bad Sisters), and Oscar- and 16-time-Grammy-nominee Björk.

Eggers set out to make “the Viking movie…  the most historically accurate and grounded Viking film of all time.” 

When he started delving into Viking culture, Eggers says, “I found a full and complex civilisation of beautiful art, cultural and religious fusion, advanced technology, elaborate customs, and codes of honour and justice. But it was also a culture of extreme violence and subjugation, and one where horrific cycles of revenge knew no end. Humankind, it seems, never changes. Maybe that’s why I am drawn to the past. It is a dark and distant mirror.”

Eggers wanted to “capture, without judgement, the inner world of the Viking mind: their beliefs, mythology, and ritual life. That would mean the supernatural would be as realistic as the ordinary in this film – for so it was for them.”

For example, Skarsgård explains, “The Vikings believed that some people had a spirit animal living within them that would manifest itself… in different ways… In Amleth’s case, it’s both wolf and bear — Beowulf, if you will. Before the [film’s] big raid on the Slav village, we watch him take on the strength and ferocity of a bear combined with the agility and nimbleness of a wolf.” 

Along with BAFTA-nominated producer Lars Knudsen (The Witch, Midsommar, Hereditary), Skarsgård had already spent 10 years developing a Viking project before having lunch with Eggers to discuss what would become The Northman, which is based on the ancient Norse legend that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet. 

Eggers says Skarsgård “was smart to develop a Viking movie for himself because he’s the perfect person for it, physically. He’s a 6-foot-4 Nordic actor who can transform his body into this ferocious machine. Alex was totally fearless as he was bringing Amleth to life, and through hard work he became a Viking.”

But becoming that “ferocious machine” wasn’t easy. Skarsgård turned to Swedish personal trainer and nutritionist Magnus Lygdback, who’s worked with the likes of Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck, and had trained Skarsgård on 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan. 

The physical demands of the role included hand-to-hand fighting, mounting a fortress wall during a Viking raid, leaping across rooftops, and participating in the brutal lacrosse-like ball game known as Knattleikr. 

In keeping with the go-epic-or-go-home approach that drove the project, the film’s final, brutal fight scene is set against the backdrop of, wait for it… an Icelandic volcano. It was shot with Skarsgård and Bang wearing nothing but flesh-coloured thongs, in freezing cold weather. Before cameras rolled on their showdown, the two actors were hosed down with various substances designed to mimic flesh and blood. 

“The closing fight sequence was the craziest thing I’ve ever shot — we’re naked on top of an erupting volcano,” laughs Skarsgård. 

Den of Geek hails The Northman as “the definitive Viking movie”; NPR says it’s “as crafty as an art film, as brutal as a slasher flick,” and UPROXX says, “The Northman is Shakespeare, but it’s also a movie about muscular shirtless men growling at each other. For me, it was near to perfect.” 

Watch The Northman on Showmax.